THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Rugby Union enthusiasts, especially those who support Wales, are having to bite their finger-nails at the moment as they wait to see who is eligible to play for their teams.  This is part of a crack down by the authorities on ‘bogus’ claimers of nationalities.  The immediate question posed has been: how can you play for Wales if you are a New Zealander?

In the case of one player, Matt Cardey, this has been resolved by the discovery of his maternal grandmother’s birth certificate in Nantyglo, Gwent.  So far, so good.  Brett Sinkinson and Shane Howarth are still scouring the archives to obtain the elusive ‘proof’.  But how far back do you have to go?  After all – athletic considerations set aside – I could offer myself for the French national XV on the grounds that my ancestors came from there, in the 16th century.

This reminds me of the situation in my last parish when local Catholic schools were urged to provide the most generous possible terms of admission for Catholics: as long as Catholicism could be found somewhere in the blood stream, the children were in.  So we were receiving phone calls from people wanting us to check the baptismal records for 1890 – and even for 1820, before the church had been built.

This shows the danger of trying to restrict what should be in the heart to the contents of a document, a slip of paper.  I cannot help thinking they probably organise matters rather better in the Third World, where the faith is often very keenly held, by virtue of not organising them at all.  Do they really bother about documents and registers, which the termites will eat?  Do they exchange endless certificates after confirmations, marriages and first communions, as we do, in order to keep tabs on people?  I doubt it.  But in the essentials of the living faith, they often have a lot to teach us.

Lastly farewell to the doughty atheist Mr. Nicolas Walter, managing director of the Rationalist Press Association, who has just died.  He has appeared in the columns of this Newsletter and in my sermons, so his place in the hall of fame is assured.  He was a campaigner for many causes and the scourge of sloppy newspaper editors. He often criticised believers for muddling ‘pious tradition’ with strongly based argument.  He actually made us think about what – and why – we believe.  We need people like him.  He won’t want me wishing him ‘eternal rest’ and ‘God speed’ so I confine myself to saying ‘thank you’.